Friday, January 4, 2013

From personal experience — Greener Pastures

From personal experience — Greener Pastures

January 04, 2013

Malaysian Insider --Side Views

JAN 4 — I write today to present a scenario from
personal experience which relates to the national brain-drain and low
enrolment in the civil service.

I have served in the civil service for three years now,
and the reasons why I joined the civil service was because of my mother,
who herself served as a teacher for 30 years and convinced me that the
civil service was not what most people thought it to be. In fact, it
gave her a good career, a good life, a good income and good benefits
right up till now in her retirement. The other reason was I wanted a
stable job that would allow me a good work-life balance and time for my
new family.

So, after graduating in the Dean’s list from a local
university and working in the private sector for a while, I applied and
subsequently was called to service. Before I started in the civil
service, one year after graduation, I took a certification examination
which allows me to practise in many foreign countries. But I chose to
stay in Malaysia because Malaysia is home.

I am perhaps the unlikeliest candidate to choose the civil
service. The first question most people ask is “Why did you join the
civil service?”, and then it is usually followed by “When are you
leaving (the civil service)?”. There were two options for me to join the
civil service, my first choice was to join the academia. When I
embarked on the application process, they told me that they weren’t keen
on accepting me because they were afraid that I would leave the
University after I got my post-graduate qualifications. Facing such
negativity, I gave up on that option and chose to join the civil service
proper.

Even with my excellent results, overseas certification and
private sector experience, I started off with the basic graduate’s pay
grade, which was very low, considering that with my overseas
certification, I could get a job in other countries which would pay
between RM10,000 — RM40,000 a month. As such, I was only getting
somewhere around RM35,000 per annum. The current salary I get, is just
enough to maintain a comfortable middle income lifestyle if I don’t
purchase a car or house. But I thought that if I wanted to bring change
to the industry, I had to be the change. Money isn’t everything, so I
stayed. (Remuneration, check; idealism, check.)

I don’t begrudge my three years of service, and I believe I
had performed well in my job especially in the implementation of the
ETP (Economic Transformation Programs) which I believed would benefit
the country. I am pulling well above my weight and pay grade in my
current responsibilities. My performance was recognised when they
awarded me the Excellent Service Award for my second year of service.
(Job satisfaction, check.)

Then, two days after Christmas 2012, they dropped a
bombshell. I was being transferred, arbitrarily, to the southern-most
state away from my family, especially my infant child who is still
nursing. Mind you, this is not a promotion; in fact, it would involve a
reduction in take-home pay and increased expenses as I would have to
travel weekly to be with my family while at the same time, maintain
living in two separate locations. In addition, the notice period for the
transfer was a mere three weeks with all the holidays and clearing of
annual leave days, barely enough time to properly hand over all the
important programmes under the ETP that I have been working on. Neither
does this transfer contribute to my career development. And all this was
done without giving any reason or consultation in advance. This is not
only happening to me, but many of my colleagues.

I question the rationale behind this as it affects the
performance and continuity of government programmes, violates
employee/civil servant welfare and most importantly lacks talent
management.

So, can anyone explain how I am supposed to stay on while
it is obvious, to me at least, that there are greener pastures in the
private sector and even overseas? Good intentions towards the service of
the country do not put food on the table nor is it a good enough reason
for me to sacrifice my family life.

I hope that the policymakers in Talent Corp, Commission of
Public Service (SPA) and Department of Public Service (JPA) will be
able to identify the flaws in the current system and rectify them so
that people like me will be motivated to remain and contribute to the
betterment of the country.